BIO: Hazel, Peter, Union Co., KY
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Submitted by MDT10 Apr 1997
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(From the book-Sturgis, KY 1880-1980, The First 100 Years)
pg. 138
The Peter Hazel family moved to the Territory of VA in what is now known as Union Co., KY following the
Revolutionary War. They were among the first white settlers in the Sturgis area and had received a land
grant and purchased and additional one thousand acres of land. Peter Hazel was a relative of Caleb Hazel,
one of Abraham Lincoln's first school teachers. Peter and his wife had nine children, one of whom was
Fielding Hazel. Fielding and his wife Martha Collins had nine children. One of the children, James Ira Hazel
and his wife Lela Lucy Berry, had two children, Robert Vanderbilt and Kenneth Rockerfellow. James Ira
or Dick as he was called, purchased his brothers and sisters share of their father's estate following
Fielding's death. This land that had never had a deed issued in anything but the Hazel name was still
owned by the two brothers, Van and Kenneth, when Alcoa Aluminum purchased a large section of the area
in the 1950's. Currently approximately two acres of this land is still owned by the Hazels and has a
building lot and a family cemetery on it.Kenneth had one son, Kenneth Dudly, who makes his home in Mount
Juliet, TN. Van and his wife Willia Nell Hoffman, of the Hoffman's from NC, had two daughters,
Ruth Wayne and Norma Jean. Ruth and her husband, Robert Joseph Long, had one son, Robert Jr. , who
now lives in Huntsville, AL. Norma had four children, Robert Scott Quinn, Anthony Allen, Patricia Anne and
Alphonse Enu Bartolotto, OL. There is an area known as Hazel Bend, a bridge over Highway 109-85 at
Hazel's Branch and several other landmarks areas attributed to Peter and his descendants. The first
quarter horse race track in this area was located behind the Hazel Cemetery, one of the first
preachers at the Bell's Mine Church was a Hazel. The original home place was built in a Walnut grove after
the first selected site was found to be inhabited by a band of Indians when they arrived to start
construction. Prior to the purchase of the land by Alcoa, there were three untouched grave sites on the
last one hundred acres owned by the Hazels. Legend has it and was still being told in 1988 that Canilla
Hazel killed a bear in a knife fight near the Tradewater River area of the farm and one of Peter's sons
went to CA during the gold rush of 1849. He returned by boat that brought him into LA where he
completed the journey home over land. The complete trip home took nearly a year. Over the years three
coal mines have been located on the farm with the last coal being used for the family and tenant
consumption in the 1940's. The original farm was self sustaining with grain, tobacco, hemp for rope, sugar
maple trees for sugar, every vegetable and over ten different fruits being raised along with sheep for
wool, goats, cows, horses, mules, chickens, turkeys and ducks. This area ended with the demise of small
farms.
(Personal note, I believe this was sent in for the book by Norma Jean, who is mentioned as a daughter
above.)
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